Teardrops
by MunchlaxMage
Summary: Alex Rider has retired at 17 but has kept his old curiosity. But after the death of a friend, will this spur him on to avenge Damian? New faces and old appear.
1. A Short Introduction

Disclaimer: I do not own Alex Rider, Anthony Horowitz does

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Alex Rider, Anthony Horowitz does.

Aurelia's Tear

As the coffin was lowered into the grave, the young brunette wept. Tears fell from her deep blue eyes as she watched the coffin containing her one true love fall down into the gritty abyss that awaited it. A small hand slipped into hers and she was dragged away by a familiar white-haired girl, leading her back to the parked car. As they drove away, she watched the site of the burial in the hope of a miracle, but no such luck. He was dead, and there was no escaping that. She would just have to live with it. The harsh reality hit her again and she was bawling and screaming in the back seat of the car, not caring who saw. She had met him in the video games shop, their eyes meeting as they both scrambled for the same game. He had played the gentleman, proposing that she take it, but only if she agreed to meet him for a coffee. She had laughed and politely agreed to meet him, and they both discovered that they had a lot in common. For Violet Baudelaire, she never thought that she would find someone to look after _her_.

Violet remembered all these memories in the car and it took a good ten minutes before Jack Starbright and Alex Rider could coax her out of the car. Her younger sister Fuchsia helped too, comforting her in French. Violet Baudelaire heard none of this however, all she could hear was his voice, over and over, and she wished more than ever that Damian Hunter wasn't dead.

'Do you think she will get over it?' Tom Harris whispered to Jack.

'She will feel better in time, but the pain will linger on. I still haven't forgotten my brother's death, and neither has Robin.' Jack replied, still gazing at the curled up Violet on the sofa, who was sobbing into a cushion. After a silent dinner where nobody ate much or spoke, Jack suggested the idea that everybody should get some sleep, and no one objected. Alex threw a throw blanket over a silently weeping Violet, his heart heavy with remorse. Damian shouldn't have died, and now to make it worse his friend Violet was in the same pain Alex knew all too well. Mourning sucks.

I know it's really short but I wanted to make sure there was some interest before I carried it on. There are a few new characters and there are plenty of old faces too. Please Review. D


	2. Retirement

Disclaimer: I still do not own Alex Rider

**Disclaimer: **I still do not own Alex Rider.

Retirement

_2 months before Damian Hunter's Funeral._

Alex Rider sighed as he waved goodbye to Jack, his housekeeper, and he walked slowly down the road towards a familiar bank. It was a grey day, the kind when nobody spoke much and most of the day was spent complaining about 'the bloody weather'. It was the kind of day when if you were waiting for a bus, the bus would be late and rain would start to fall, especially if you had forgotten your umbrella.

As he stepped through the nondescript and frankly boring reception, he was sent up to the third floor, where he was to meet Alan Blunt and Mrs. Jones. Odd couple they seem but not many other couples –if any- send hundreds of men and women to their deaths. In Mrs. Jones's case, her motto seemed to be: have a peppermint and carry on. Alan Blunt didn't seem to care; he was a nobody, with seemingly no family, no wife, and no children. It was as if he had always existed as the elderly boss of MI6.

'Ah! Alex,' Mrs. Jones said with her usual façade of normality. 'We were just wondering about you.'

'I'm not interested in any mission you have for me. Jack's brother has died and I'm staying home to help her cope.' Alex explained coldly.

'Ah yes, here it is, Daniel Starbright. He has currently been living in the North West of England with his only son,' Blunt read from a file on his desk. 'Poor child. Daniel died from a car accident. His son, Robin, is due to be put into care. Your housekeeper Jackie might be able to vouch for custody, but perhaps she is too unstable after her brother's death.' Blunt calmly explained with a hint of a smirk. Mrs. Jones looked slightly guilty.

'It's Jack,' Alex growled. He was outraged that MI6 would leave a young boy in care when he had family. He knew the only reason they where doing this was so that Alex would work for them again, but he knew he could not trust them.

Somewhere, in a bare room which contained only a bed, a wardrobe and a chair, a small mass was curled on the floor, weeping for his father, and wishing that he could escape the wretched orphanage.

A/N

Thank You for reading this chapter! Now please review.

This chapter is quite short, but if I do chapters in short waves it means I can get more of the story done in a shorter time. Somehow. Once again, thank you for reading and check out my other story(ies) if you can be bothered. D


	3. A Day at the Orphanage

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Alex Rider. If I did, I probably wouldn't be sat on 2 beanbag chairs piled on top of each other (because one is only half full), writing this story on a computer that is balanced on a chair (yes, really).

I'm sorry I haven't wrote recently; we got a new computer so the old one is upstairs, just plugged in, and I've also just started at college, which is very time consuming. I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to review my little story, your comments mean the world to me )

A Day At The Orphanage

Wake up, wash, get bullied at school, and cry self to sleep.

Wake up, wash, get bullied at school, and cry self to sleep.

Robin Starbright hated his new routine. It was like a nightmare, except he couldn't wake up, stumble sleepily down the hall to his fathers room, where he knew his father would be wide awake, reading as always. He couldn't curl up next to his father, and allow himself to be lulled to sleep by the sound of pages turning softly, the dark of the nightmare evaporating instantly. But Robin Starbright knew that he could never see his father again, except in the bad dreams he had when he kept reliving the car crash. He remembered it all. The screech of tires, the smash of metal, and the acceleration of the other car as it speeded away.

Robin remembered his Auntie. She had lived in America most of her life, she spoke with an American accent. He remembered a fun day out he had had with her. She had insisted that he called her Jack, no 'Auntie', just plain Jack. His parents had joined them too of course, and Jack was happy because Robin's father had helped her get a job in London. Robin was a sickly child then, prone to colds and flu, and much to his embarrassment, his mother made him carry a little box of tissues all winter, because she wanted no 'snot attacks'. Because of this, Robin sneezed on Jack, accidentally, Jack had just laughed but his mother had gone ballistic. She hated germs, and often scrubbed her hands more than 10 times after going to the bathroom. Daniel Starbright often turned a blind eye but she often hissed in his ear that boys were dirtier than girls, and once Robin heard.

Then came the day of the huge argument, just a week after the fun day out with Jack. Robin's mother had found Robin, then aged four, playing outside in the garden with his action figures. She wouldn't let him back in the house afterwards, locked the back door and left him till it was dark and Daniel Starbright came home from work to find his son, crying and cold, waiting on the front step for him. Daniel had then entered the house, shouting for her, asking her why she had left Robin in the cold. He made sure that Robin was wrapped up in a blanket, warm, with a cookie in one hand and a cup of milk in the other, when he entered the bathroom to find his wife washing her hands. Soon after, an ambulance had arrived to take her to hospital. Daniel assured Robin that his mother would be okay, but he was uncertain.

Robin looked at the wall. It was half five, and he was bored. All his things were being held in a safe at the Royal and General Bank. The orphanage didn't have the insurance to replace stolen items, and Robin's certainly were, to him at least. He had missed his father's funeral; he had to sit in the bank with a Mr. Crawley, waiting for his father's will to be read out. Mr. Crawley seemed to recognize Robin, or at least his last name, which unnerved Robin no end. Crawley spoke about his dog and family, but it all seemed false to Robin. Daniel Starbright had left Robin everything, all of his money, and his priceless art collection. It was all to be kept safe until Robin turned 21. Robin sighed and lay back on the lumpy mattress, until he had the strangest feeling that someone was talking about him.

Alex Rider had run home in a rage at MI6. The boy has family, he thought fiercely, imagining the worst orphanage ever with a small boy quivering within, he sprinted home, not even turning when he knocked a large stand of flowers which were being stocked by a petite brunette who sighed in exasperation as she picked them up.

Alex arrived home to Jack, and found her curled up on the sofa with a box of tissues, watching some antique show.

'Jack!' Alex called, 'Did you know that MI6 had left Robin in an orphanage?'

The lump of tears and dressing gown that was Jack stirred feebly.

'I thought that that Mrs. Jones had packed him off to Washington to live with Mom and Dad,' she said in a very quiet voice, so unlike her usual tones. 'That woman promised me she would.'

'Well, it's obvious, isn't it?' Alex snapped with a fresh wave of fury at Alan Blunt. 'Blunt changed her mind for her, to get back at me for leaving MI6.'

Jack sat up, brushed the hair out of her eyes with a quick swipe of her hand, and promptly stood up.

'Alex, we have to get him out of the orphanage. I'm the only family available to him now. I can't just leave him.' She staggered to the bathroom to wash, apply make up, and tottered off to her room to change. 'Don't just stand there!' she called from the bathroom. 'Unlock the car doors while you are waiting!'

Alex smiled. If there was one thing that could put the fire back in Jack, it was this.

Mrs. Jones walked down the corridor briskly. The new high heels she was wearing clacked loudly on the tiles as she walked. Alan Blunt had been avoiding her since he had sent Robin to the orphanage, and she wanted to know why. She had met Robin personally, spoke to him, and she knew that putting him in the orphanage wasn't right.

'Alan?' she enquired quietly. 'I think that Alex isn't going to come back. Maybe we should just let Robin go and live with Ms. Starbright.'

Alan sighed. He knew that sooner or later Mrs. Jones would corner him –at the drinks machine, for Gods sake- and he also knew what it was that she would want to talk about.

'Mrs. Jones, you know perfectly well why Robin can't go to live with Jackie,' Blunt explained mechanically, waiting for his can of Sprite to fall.

'I think its Jack' Mrs. Jones replied quietly.

The can fell and got stuck before it landed at the bottom. Blunt grunted and turned to face Mrs. Jones.

'I don't care what her name is! The reason Robin can't live there has nothing to do with me getting back at Alex! If anything, it's Alex's fault that Robin is stuck in that orphanage! At least he is protected there!' He snapped at her, so loudly that passersby looked around in shock, and promptly clutched their files tight to the chests before fleeing. No one had seen Alan Blunt lose control like that.

'Alan?' Mrs. Jones enquired, her face filled with concern. 'Protect him from what?'

'You know.' He replied darkly. 'Scorpia.'

Thank You for reading, please review.

Authors Note

I was thinking of giving Alex a love interest (if I can fit her in somewhere) and was originally planning to use Sabina Pleasure, but it turns out that a lot of people on the forums hate her, so I don't think I should use her (because I want Alex's love interest to be liked) . What's your opinion?


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